Chesham tightened their grip on top spot in the Thames Valley Cricket league Division One with a four wicket win over Kew on Saturday.

Kew went into the match in second place and looking to usurp their title rivals at the summit of the division.

After batting first the impetus was with Kew to set a sizeable score but they soon found themselves wilting in the face of an excellent Chesham bowling performance.

Gift Kwatsha has enjoyed a superb start to the campaign and he was once again on top form as he took 6-23.

Kwatsha’s haul was made all the more impressive by the importance of the wickets he took as he collected the scalps of six of Kew’s top seven batsmen.

The most significant of which looked to be Will Shaw who, after making a decent start, fell for 28 to leave Kew struggling early in their innings.

With Kwatsha and Jack McIver (1-26) tying up the bulk of the Kew order, it was left to Pip France to see off the tail as he dismissed the last three batsmen to finish with 3-18.

Only Sean Abbott (30) followed in Shaw’s footsteps to post any kind of a score as Kew were left reeling on 125-10 from just 38.2 overs.

They started well in defending the measly total and failures for the usually reliable Matt Rance (4), Mark Eteen (4) and Jason Rance (10) gave them hope of a surprise recovery.

Andy Goddard’s 18 also did little to help the Chesham cause and it was once again left to Kwatsha to shoulder the burden of leading Chesham towards victory.

His quick-fire 35 and Luke Webb’s 29 took Chesham to within touching distance of their total and allowed France and McIver to finish things off.

The result leaves Chesham 13 points clear of their new nearest rivals Cove who thumped Windsor by nine wickets while Wokingham are 14 points further back.

Chesham will look to keep the chasing pack at arms-length when they take on fifth placed Stoke Green in their next match.